The weather continues to be spectacular. The day is gorgeous, warm and sunny. The air is still. It will reach the low 70’s today. I’m thinking to grab some deck time with a book and some ice tea.

It is time to buy my Halloween Peeps. They need to harden. I’m a traditionalist. The orange pumpkins are my favorites. I’ll open the packages and let the air harden them. They have to get hard enough so if you tap them they make a thud sound and the marshmallow doesn’t move.

The bird feeders needed filling so the dogs and I went out to the deck. Nala did her zoomies running the perimeter of the yard, up and down the deck stairs them around the yard again. Henry just stood around wagging his tail then the two dogs ate each others’ faces. I filled four of the feeders then waited for the birds, and they didn’t disappoint me. The Tufted Tit Mouse was the first followed by the Chickadees, the state birds of Massachusetts.

The houses around the project where I lived had their own back yards. The house across the street from us had a grape arbor and a bird house on a tree. I never saw any birds. My grandparents had a bird house at the top of a pole in their backyard. They never had birds either. When I moved into my house, my brother made me a bird feeder. It was a flat piece of wood with edges. The blue jays, the pig birds, sat on the feeder and filled their mouths with seeds. The little birds stayed away. The feeder emptied within a day. I bought feeders to hang in the front yard as I didn’t have a deck yet. I watched the birds from the living room windows as did my cats, one cat in each window.

When I was a kid, life was good. My only responsibility was school. No big deal there as I liked school. I was a Girl Scout. I was in the drill team. I played CYO basketball. I was a guard. Those were the days when guards had to stay on half court, couldn’t shoot, only the forwards could, and had to defend our basket. Girls were too delicate for full court basketball. When I was in the sixth grade, I asked for girls to get to use one of the baskets in the schoolyard during recess. My teacher took me aside and explained that girls couldn’t use the basket. Only boys could play basketball, and she started talking about my friend. That’s when she lost me.

My dance card this week is uke heavy, as usual. I have practice tonight, a lesson and a concert tomorrow and a concert on Thursday. On Friday I rest!

This morning is a delight, warm and sunny. It will be 71°, a bit of late summer in October. The breeze is ever so slight. Only a few leaves still have their color. The oak leaves have curled and turned brown. The bogs have been flooded and the cranberries harvested. Halloween decorations and political signs vie for lawn space. Inflated pumpkins and black cats are popular this year. My witch still decorates the front door. A small sugar pumpkin is on a front step. This time of year is a wonder filled color and creatures of the night.

The dogs, especially Nala, love this weather. She lies in the same spot outside on the grass in the sun. Henry runs around then comes in for his nap. We, in this house, are all creatures of habit.

When I was a kid, the fall season meant playing outside after school in the late afternoons. It meant going inside early as the days got shorter. The afternoon chill meant a sweatshirt or a sweater. There wasn’t enough time to go afar so I always stayed around the neighborhood. I remember going inside and watching TV until supper. The Mickey Mouse Club was on every afternoon. I still can sing the opening and closing. I remember each day of the week was a special day. Friday was Talent Round-up Day. I think I remember that day the best because the Mouseketeer’s rode fake horses and wore cowboy hats instead of ears.

When it came time to carve pumpkins, my mother covered the kitchen table with newspaper. My favorite part about carving pumpkins was the reaching inside and pulling out the seeds and the guts. We’d hold the guts in our hands letting some strings hang down, and we’d make monster noises. It was perfectly disgusting which made it even better. My pumpkin carving was never all that original except I always carved teeth in the pumpkin’s grin. Every night we candle lit the carved pumpkins on the front steps.